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Don't Feed Tryndamere -- In-Depth Champion Information

Here's the link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0x9kGsGLWg

Movie Notes
This champion was more interesting than I originally expected him to be. While he's relatively simple to play (and play decently well) with, there's a lot involved with managing his health and fury.

I didn't mention this in the video, but I'd also add that there's a strong benefit to using Bloodlust before Undying Rage, not just using it afterward. This is because you'll instantly gain 50-100 Fury just from using Undying Rage. You shouldn't use it if the cooldown of Bloodlust will prohibit you from using it again at the end of Undying Rage, provided you're concerned about dying, or if you're going to burn Undying Rage at the same time anyway.

I've seen a number of different Tryndamere builds, and tried a number of them as well. The ones I was most successful with almost all involved Berserker Greaves, Bloodthirster, and Zeal at an early point (Bloodthirster fast if I earned significant gold early). I also went beefier in a number of games, and there should be a few clips mixed in with Mercury Treads (even though I don't use them most of the time, there are some teams where you'll just need to).

I do these guides and learn champions in normal matches, so there wasn't much counter-picking going on, and Exhaust was iffy, so I got away with pure damage builds where I think I'd be more cautious in draft mode games.

Introduction
Tryndamere is a high physical damage, melee champion. He does not use a traditional resource system, but scales in damage based on both Health and Fury, a red bar underneath his health.

5 Fury is gained for each normal attack, 5 extra Fury is gained if the attack critically strikes, and 10 extra Fury is gained for any unit killed. Tryndamere can have a maximum of 100 Fury.

The rate of Fury Tryndamere gains scales both on critical strike and attack speed, and to the degree it helps him with killing units, attack damage as well. Because of these factors, Tryndamere benefits strongly from all forms of attack scaling.

Battle Fury
Tryndamere's passive is Battle Fury. This increases his critical strike chance by a small amount per Fury he has available. At maximum Fury, this provides a 35% chance to critically strike.

Bloodlust
Tryndamere's Bloodlust passively increases his attack damage, and also increases his attack damage by a small amount per 1% of his missing health.

The passive effects of this ability cause Tryndamere to be stronger at lower health. Combined with the critical chance gained by staying at high Fury, Tryndamere is deceptively dangerous at low health.

Bloodlust can be activated, consuming all of his current Fury to heal himself. This heals for a base amount, plus an additional amount per his current Fury. In a tight situation, Bloodlust can be activated with no Fury for a very small heal.

Both the increased damage and the heal from Bloodlust make Tryndamere a strong jungler, able to more effectively burn through difficult camps and sustain himself to immediately help gank in the lanes.

Bloodlust also makes Tryndamere excellent in a solo lane due to his ability to sustain himself over time with the healing.

Mocking Shout
Tryndamere's Mocking Shout causes all surrounding enemies to have dramatically decreased attack damage. Any enemies with their backs turned towards Tryndamere are also dramatically slowed for 4 seconds.

Mocking Shout is one of the stronger slows in League of Legends, and it makes Tryndamere a great ganker while also allowing him to stay range if he is slowed as well. If making the decision between whether to stay and fight against a Tryndamere or flee, understand that he may very well be able to continue dealing damage to you if you turn your back unless you can also stay out of range of the shout.

However, the Attack Damage reduction should not be ignored, either in a 1v1 against a Tryndamere or team fights where Tryndamere can hit most or all of a team with the shout.

Mocking Shout cannot be activated unless Tryndamere can see a champion in range.

Spinning Slash is effective as both a gap closer and a fleeing mechanic. It can be used to cross over many walls and other terrain.

Spinning Slash is often used to immediately close the distance between Tryndamere and an opposing champion, either to initiate a fight or to chase someone who has used a blink ability. Combined with Mocking Shout, this can be very good against opponents fleeing, or simply to harass while in a lane.

Undying Rage
Tryndamere's ultimate ability is Undying Rage. When activated, Tryndamere receives up to 100 Fury and becomes immune to death for 5 seconds. During this time, he cannot go below 1 health.

He can activate this ability when stunned, silenced, or suppressed, making it difficult to rely on crowd controls to burst him before he can activate the ability.

Undying Rage defines Tryndamere's playstyle in the midgame and especially lategame. Due to Bloodlust, which increases his attack damage based on missing health, and Battle Fury, which increases his critical strike, Tryndamere is most powerful while he remains at or near 1 health.

Undying Rage is also effective very early in the game to tower dive low health opponents and survive long enough to get back out of the tower's range. Towards the very end of the duration of Undying Rage, Tryndamere may use Bloodlust to heal himself and, if has the gear, use normal attacks to lifesteal health back, so that Damage Over Time effects such as Ignite don't kill him.

Once Tryndamere reaches level 6, never assume you can kill him quickly, especially if it involves tower diving him.

Countering & Champion Notes
Tryndamere can completely destroy players on an opposing team during Undying Rage if he isn't countered. Left unchecked, he is one of the strongest champions in the League. However, there are ways to counter him at each stage of the game.

First, if playing in a Draft Mode, make sure you're choosing summoner skills to help. The single most important ability is Exhaust. Ignite may also be helpful, especially against a less experienced Tryndamere, as the effect will continue dealing DOT damage after Undying Rage ends. When possible, you'll also want champions with crowd controls; since Tryndamere uses normal attacks for his damage output, champions with blinds can be as effective as many other champions who provide crowd controls.

Second, Tryndamere still needs farm. His sustain is based on generating Fury to use Bloodlust for healing himself; he generates Fury based on being in melee range and attacking minions or players. The key to breaking his early farm in a lane is dealing enough burst to him that he cannot safely get in melee range to generate Fury from minions. The degree to which you can effectively prevent him from healing himself will determine his strenght in the mid game.

Third, Tryndamere is devastated by all forms of crowd control, but is particularly vulnerable to strong slows in team fights. In the mid and especially late game, you can remove even a very fed Tryndamere's effects by preventing him from getting in range of anyone on your team when he is using Undying Rage. This is where Exhaust comes in, but also any other slows or stuns that will keep him at a distance. Tryndamere may use either Cleanse or Quicksilver Sash to break these if necessary, and may choose to go for items like Mercury Treads or Cloak and Dagger to decrease the effectiveness of crowd control.

Tryndamere is one of the few melee carries who can get away with building more directly offensive items with little penalty. Part of this may mean Lifesteal items such as Bloodthirster. This makes it especially important to keep at range during Undying Rage, so you can make sure he remains at low health once Undying Rage ends, ideally allowing you to easily nuke him from a range.

It goes without saying that you want Tryndamere using Undying Rage. Against a good Tryndamere, you should always burst him to the point of using it, then immediately focus damage on other targets and stay away from him if possible. While many teams make the mistake of burning all their crowd controls and burst on Tryndamere at the start, not realizing he can activate Undying Rage while crowd controls, other teams make the mistake of ignoring him altogether, allowing him to kill off members of their team without even needing to burn Undying Rage.